This is one of those fairly rare occurrences when a story takes place at Christmas time or has some heavy Chistmassy elements to it but isn't about peace, good-will to all men, the birth of Christ, Ol' Saint Nick, or any of the usual trappings of a jolly old Christmas tale. In fact, with this trope the holiday setting has no bearing whatsoever on the story in question (except maybe for some added tension that all this chaos is happening when people should be celebrating). In fact, in most of these stories if it wasn't for the occasional appearance of a Christmas tree or some other decorations or music you'd most likely forget it's Christmas at all!

The climax of Chrono Crusade takes place on Christmas Eve. This gets mentioned briefly a couple times, but the heroes are far too busy saving the world to hang up their stockings.

Comic Books

In The Walking Dead, Dale off-handedly notes to Rick that, by counting the days, they've guessed that it is Christmas Eve. Rick angrily tells him not to spread it around, as he doesn't want to disappoint his already traumatized son.

Film

Die Hard and Die Hard 2 would probably be the most famous example of this trope, in that other than a few mentions of the holiday (and quite a few decorations) here and there, it's all-out action and senseless violence in direct juxtaposition to what the season's all about. And, it came out in the middle of July!

"Now I have a machine gun. Ho ho ho."

The second one is kind of more blatant about using this trope. That it's the Christmas travel week is almost like an afterthought while McClane is taking down Colonel Stuart.

It's actually somewhat justified in the first film. The Christmas holiday is the reason John is visiting his estranged wife in the first place. And the Christmas holiday is why the Nakatomi employees are partying in a mostly empty building.

Eyes Wide Shut takes place during Christmas, as evident by the occasional Christmas tree in the background.

The Sure Thing features college students during winter break... still partying it up at college and throwing a Tahitian-themed Christmas party.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is set around Christmas, and opens with Harry in New York while it's snowing, trying to steal a toy for his niece. The only real sign of it once the story moves to LA are some decorations and girls in Sexy Santa Dress.

The Odessa File is a political thriller about a German reporter trying to find a former Nazi concentration camp commandant in 1963. The movie opens on November 22, 1963 (the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination) with said reporter (Jon Voight) driving through streets lined with Christmas decorations as Perry Como's song "Christmas Dream" plays over the credits.

Psycho begins on "Friday, December the Eleventh" according to an onscreen graphic during the opening shot, and Christmas decorations can be seen in downtown Phoenix as Janet Leigh's character leaves town. However, no further allusion to the holiday is made although the film's narrative extends later into the month.

This was a case of Serendipity Writes the Plot, since they didn't notice there were Christmas decorations in their on-location takes until after filming had concluded, and then they just mentioned it was mid-December in the opening to properly compensate.

First Blood is another film where Christmas decorations are visible in several scenes, although no mention of the holiday is ever made by the characters.

The Apartment takes place around Christmas and New Year's, but the holidays don't have much to do with the story other than to underscore the emptiness of the characters' lives.

Holiday presumably begins on Christmas Day, given the two carols sung during the church scene, but none of the characters wish each other "Merry Christmas" or otherwise acknowledge it in any way.

The Holiday takes place during the last two weeks of December, but apart from a few brief mentions, Christmas has pretty much nothing to do with the plot.

Similarly, Last Holiday does include the celebration of New Year's Eve, but isn't too heavily related to the holiday; it has more to do with the celebration of the protagonist's life, which is drawing to a very premature close (or so she thinks).

Three Days of the Condor. It seems that wherever Condor goes in New York, there is a Salvation Army Christmas Caroling squad nearby.

Hook has Peter Pan's kids getting kidnapped on what may very well have been Christmas Day. Ouch.

It's a Wonderful Life is unequivocally considered one of the essential "Christmas movies," even though nearly all of it is spent showing How We Got Here and what would have happened if George hadn't been born; using the holiday as a Framing Device really only serves to make things extra warm and fuzzy for the final scene.

Brazil presents the perfect Christmas present: a decision making machine for business executives! Good to know that your odds of being fired on a whim are a solid 50/50.

The first Lethal Weapon movie takes place at Christmas, as is shown by the tree in Murtaugh's house and the complete destruction of a large stack of eggnog cartons in an action scene. During the climax, the villain shoots a TV playing the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol and declares, "I hate Christmas!" Plus, the first scene with Mel Gibson shows a drug dealer using a Christmas tree lot as a front for his real business.

Much of Edward Scissorhands takes place at Christmastime, but it's not a particularly Christmassy film by any stretch.

The French Connection apparently takes place at Christmas or close to it. The first time we see Popeye Doyle he's working undercover as a sidewalk Santa.

Prometheus is actually set at Christmas time and captain Janek even sets up a Christmas tree. It has nothing to do with the plot and nobody else cares.

The final act of Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005) occurs during the winter, and includes a scene in a park where all of the trees are covered in Christmas lights. No other reference is made to the holiday season.

Gremlins is mostly set on Christmas Eve, but the film is mostly about killing monsters.

The Proposition is set at and around Christmas - with a climax at a Christmas Day dinner - but being an extremely violent drama set in colonial Australia, has neither the tone nor the iconography of a Christmas film. This is lampshaded when Emily Watson's character, an English rose transposed to the outback, holds up a piece of white wool and says "Look. Snow." But for plot purposes, Christmas could just as easily have been substituted for "next Sunday".

Moonstruck was shot during the Christmas season in New York, and lights and trees are visible in a number of the outdoor scenes, but the holidays really don't figure into the narrative at all.

The American President takes place over a two-month period, from November through early January, setting the stage for the State of the Union address and an upcoming election year. There is a scene set in the White House Christmas party (and earlier, Sydney Ellen Wade's mention of Frank Capra prompts a mention of It's a Wonderful Life) but apart from that it's not really a holiday movie.

The James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service is set around Christmas. Notably, Blofeld places an ornament on a Christmas tree during the mandated Evil Gloating scene and distributes Christmas gifts containing his Virus Omega dispensers to his brainwashed beauties. Also, the Winter festival scene where Bond and Theresa escape from Blofeld's goons to the tune of "Do You Know Where Christmas Trees Are Born"

Plotwise, Home Alone doesn't have to take place at Christmas; the family could have easily left Kevin behind when they left for a summer vacation. The subplot of Kevin's mother having difficulty returning home is somewhat dependent on it, but this could be accomplished with any well-traveled holiday. However, the Christmas setting does make the film more poignant and touching, and plays into the Aesop that family is the best gift of all.

Iron Man 3 is set around Christmas, but the holiday has little bearing on the plot. Though Tony trudging through the middle of nowhere hauling his broken armor would lose something without the snow, I'll admit.

Literature

Harry Potter: Given the fact that each book takes place over the course of one school year, the narrative always at least mentions Christmas in passing.

From the Jane Austen canon, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma all contain scenes which take place over the Christmas season, but it has next to no bearing on any of their plots. The closest it comes is in Emma, in which it's mentioned that the bad weather gives Emma an excuse not to go to church on Christmas after the minister's uncomfortable overtures to her in the carriage a few days prior. To be fair, that's because many trappings of the 'traditional' Christmas are Newer Than They Think, and the more raucous old customs of the season wouldn't have been practised around Austen's carefully brought-up heroines. The one effect it would have had would be that, as now, extended families would come together (especially significant in times when they otherwise might only have contact by letter for months on end.)

The novel version of The Hunt for Red October takes place during Christmastime. The only serious Christmas related event is a brief mention of Ryan going out to buy presents for his kids.

The novel version of Patriot Games has the prisoner transport (And subsequent breakout) of Sean Miller happen on Christmas Day, while Jack and his wife celebrate the holiday in a more traditional manner on the other side of the Atlantic.

Richard Matheson's horror novel Hell House takes place between December 18 and December 24, but the only mention of the holiday comes in the very last sentence of the story, when one of the characters wishes another a merry Christmas. (The film adaptation The Legend of Hell House keeps the same datespan, but omits any reference to Christmas at all.)

The Baby-Sitters Club has an in-universe example with one of Charlotte Johanson's favorite stories. When Charlotte initially reads the story to Stacey, it seems like a story about a lost dog. It isn't until Stacey sees the pictures, virtually all of which contain trees or other decorations, that she realizes it was supposed to be a Christmas story.

In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick the initial launching of the Pequod is done on Christmas as referenced by the fact that the chapter in which it happens is called "Merry Christmas." However, the fact that it is Christmas is mentioned only once within the actual chapter.

Most of the first Artemis Fowl book takes place on the night of Christmas Eve or before dawn on Christmas Day. The first time this gets mentioned in the story is on the last page (Not counting the epilogue).

In Murderess, Lu spends the period between September 1st, 2011 and January 17th, 2012 in England, but never so much as mentions any holidays and barely even mentions the weather, despite it being the coldest in the UK in 100 years. Apparently, she is just that apathetic.

Live Action TV

An early Leave It to Beaver episode has Beaver losing his barbershop money and getting Wally to cut his hair in an attempt to keep his parents from finding out. At the very end of the episode, we see the Beav wearing an angel costume and singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" at a school pageant...after no prior mention of Christmas in the whole episode!

The West Wing's Christmas episodes tended to be tellingly named and heavily decorated and feature a carol here and there, but the actual plots could have belonged to any episode — in contrast to the Anvilicious Thanksgiving storylines (a boatload of Chinese refugees seeking freedom to practice Christianity in the U.S.; representatives from a Native tribe staging a sit-in in the White House to protest the government's treatment of their issues).

The first part of the Doctor Who story "The End of Time" was broadcast on Christmas (and the second on New Year's). Whereas each year of the revived Doctor Who had had a very Christmassy Christmas special, this one barely mentioned it. Lampshaded with the line, "Christmas is cancelled!" partway through the first episode.

Likewise "The Snowmen" three years later, following two even more Christmassy Christmas specials. To the point that The Other Wiki's synopsis doesn't even mention that it's set on Christmas Eve, because it's totally irrelevant.

During the season 4 Lost episode "The Constant" the characters only find out it's Christmas Eve when they spot the date on a calendar, being too busy with much more important things.

The Kraft Suspense Theatre episode "Are There Any More Out There Like You?" takes place at Christmas time to ironically drive home that the protagonist's family is falling apart.

Music

The Wham! song "Last Christmas", apart from the title and some jingle bells, has nothing to do with the holiday. You could have substituted "Last Arbor Day" if you could have gotten some trees to rattle together properly.

Although it takes place on Christmas Eve, The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" is actually not about celebrating Christmas at all. It is more about the eroding of dreams and the people you've come to hate (but are stuck with). The British keep voting it "Best Christmas Song" in various polls. Something about being stuck with family resonates with us, we think.

Theatre

The entire first act of RENT takes place on Christmas Eve and into the early hours of Christmas morning. The second act starts a week later on New Year's Eve and plays out over the course of the year, with the finale once again on Christmas Eve. Aside from it needing to be winter to set up Mimi and Roger's meeting (her heat went out), the holiday doesn't play into the plot very much.

Condemned has a level set in a mega-store which is decrepit and abandoned. From the décor and the faint ghostly music you can hear playing, it's evident that the store closed down one Christmas. This is arguably one of the most atmospheric levels of the game largely due to the out of place Xmas setting.

Parasite Eve is a great example of getting to watch the good people of Manhattan celebrate Xmas 1996 through spontaneous combustion and mass melting.

Raw Danger is a sequel to Disaster Report which is all about a city flooding and the peoples attempt to escape alive. The Xmas themes are pretty heavy with stores around the city all playing xmas music and decorations being all over the place, plus at the start of the game you are working as a waiter at a big fancy party that has a costumed santa clause walking around entertaining the guests. Other than cosmetic themes though the fact its Christmas seems to be purely incidental.

The only indication that Snatcher takes place on December is the billboards and stock Christmas music that plays in the downtown street scene. Later on, you find one of your contacts disguised in a Santa costume.

The PC adventure game Darkstone has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. It therefore remains unexplained how Santa Claus ends up in the world of the game and must be rescued from one of the higher-level dungeons.

Yakuza; the first game at least is set at Christmas. You have to look pretty hard to see it but there is a few decorations and one or two stores play Xmas tunes.

In AMY, despite the fact that the game takes place on Christmas Eve, there's no snow and no other reference to the holiday beyond the conversation between the train conductor and Lana (who subsequently gives Amy the digital drawing pad as a present) at the beginning of the game.

Virtue's Last Reward begins with the main character being kidnapped on Christmas Eve, and although he isn't sure how long he's been asleep when he finally comes to during the Nonary Game, he generally believes it to be Christmas Day. A few conversations take note of this, but the game isn't Christmas-themed.

Though The Firemen takes place on Christmas day, outside of your partner's complaining and occasional Christmas trees or other decorations around the building it has no real effect on the plot.

Both Kyle Hyde games are set around this general period. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is set on the evening of December 28, 1979 and the sequel Last Window covers the period of December 18-26, 1980. Other than a Pet the Dog moment in Hotel Dusk and the Christmas Tree in the corner of Lucky's Café in Last Window, it doesn't play much of a role at all in terms of the overall story. However, the Christmas presents Kyle receives in Last Window prove essential for advancing the story.

The prologue of Grand Theft Auto V takes place sometime around Christmas (as evidenced by a Christmas tree and several decorations), while the protagonists are robbing a rural bank blind. This is justified in that a near-deserted bank during the holidays would make crowd control vastly easier.

Bayonetta 2 happens during Christmas eve. Rodin dresses up for the season as Santa.

Web Animation

Bad Days has an episode in which Nick Fury and The Avengers spend Christmas Eve bowling together. Aside from the facts that this premiered on Christmas Eve, and the bowling alley has Christmas decorations adorning it, this didn't relate too strongly to the holiday.

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